#wa5

Greetings one and all! I am Daviddrag and about a year and a half ago I did a write up on the majority of the Wild ARMs series. I believe I got partially through Wild ARMS 3. If this write up of 5 ends up being popular I may end up going back and finishing the write-ups of 3 and 4.

The tag I've been using for these is "daviddrag does wild arms"

ANYWAYS, let's get this train wreck started.

WILD ARMS 5 - OPENING SONG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0LdpkVyzvM&feature=kp

So like, right of the bat you can tell you're in for a world of hurt. Replacing the cool drawn opening cinematics the other games had going for them with normal character models from the game? Nothing western at all about the song? This has pretty much nothing going for it. The song itself isn't awful, but watching this makes me feel like I'm about to watch a B-list anime from the nineties rather than play a Wild ARMs game.  

Plot: Oh boy, where do I even start? Basically, the plot of this game is cliche after cliche. I'll be talking about it in depth when I get to each character but I'll give you a brief rundown here.

The story takes place on a planet where humans are subservient to a race known as the "Veruni" that came to their world years ago seeking a new home. Using advanced technology and their superior physical abilities humanity was instantly defeated and reduced to second class citizens.

Our story follows a naive teenage boy named Dean who wants to be a Golem Hunter, someone who goes around ancient ruins trying to dig up ancient technology. 

Dean is joined in his travels by:

Rebecca, his childhood friend who is in love with him. That's her character. That's it.

Avril, a white haired Veruni that fell from the sky in a giant robot arm who as amnesia.

Greg, a "Golem Crusher" who destroys golems because some guy with a golem arm killed his family and framed him for it. He's got a cool attitude but overall the bad writing of the game kills what could be out first interesting character.

Carol. a little girl who has probably one of the cooler weapons in the Wild ARMs series. She's actually not that bad of a character and actually has like, a character arc that makes sense. Which for this game is really saying a lot.

And Chuck, a Golem Hunter that's kind of incompetent and a coward. Like Carol, he's actually not an awful character. This is because his flaws as a person are clearly there for reasons other than the ineptitude of the writers. His arc does suffer due the the poor writing of his rival in the story, but all things considered he's one of the few things his game has going for it.

Together, these characters try to find out the secret of Avril's missing memories and end up getting caught up in the interspecies conflict between the humans and the veruni and end up saving the world!

Combat System: For Wild ARMs 1-3 I didn't talk about combat so much in the opening post because it wasn't that important and was overall a generic RPG with some twists. With Wild ARMS 4 and 5 it's slightly different though. They use something called the "Hex" battle system. When the battle starts enemies and characters show up on one of 7 hexagons that make up the battlefield for the encounter. Some of the hexagons also have bonus effects like increasing/decreasing elemental damage when you're on the hexagon. There can also be destructible crates you have to blow up to move through, and certain characters can only attack a certain number of hexagons away during combat.

The other thing that's interesting is that if multiple characters or enemies are in the same hex, attacks will end up hitting everyone in that hex. And characters sharing hexes can pull off combo attacks. Honestly, this system is pretty interesting and if it didn't exist I probably wouldn't have been able to finish Wild ARMS 5.

Everyone wanted to believe that endless love was possible. You'd believed in it once too, back when you were eighteen. But you knew that love was messy, just like life. It took turns that people couldn’t foresee or even understand, leaving a long trail of regret in its wake.

"I have no choice" he says, his blue eyes met yours. They pleaded with you for one more chance. 

"You always have a choice, Bradley. At any moment, we could all change our lives entirely, it's just we make the choice not too"

"Gurveen, please-" his hand reaches out for yours. He holds onto it as if someone is going to come and steal you away from him "We can get through this. You can’t just make me different and then leave. You can’t. You can’t change me and make my whole life centered around you, then leave."

"Your life was never centered around me and that was never what I would've wanted anyway. I understand that this is your job, you have to be away for long periods of time and I was there every step of the way, supporting you. I want only the best for you, isn't it fair that I ask for the same?" 

"I wish I was the best for you then" Bradley keeps his gaze fixed on your hand in his. He tried to focus on how it felt to hold your hand because he wasn't sure he'd ever get the chance to again.

Love is a funny thing. You expect it to be easy. You expect it to be a world of roses and laughs and perfect moments that you find only in movies. You expect him to always say the right thing, and always know exactly how you feel, or exactly how to react to it. You expect him to calm you down when you’re yelling or to chase you when you run away. You expect so much that you feel entirely, and utterly defeated when something doesn’t exactly match up with all your plans. But that’s the thing, love isn’t a plan. It doesn’t have a certain beginning and it certainly has no end or visible finish line to those deeply in it. Love happens, and it is so incredibly messy.

"Well, everything happens for a reason right?" you say, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. "We were bound to end, sooner or later. The 13 year age gap is just too big, no matter how we try to pretend it doesn't matter. You're away 8 months of the year in Wales and Im stuck here, struggling to get through university. You need me to be with you, to support you and your career and I need you just as much. No one knows me the way you do, but we're not any help to each other when we're thousands of miles apart"

"I really thought some miracle would see us through. But it looks like the miracle was even getting one moment with you" he says. 

You force a small smile, gently tugging your hand out of his grip, "I have to go now"